What We’re Reading 7/16/09

Jul 16th, 2009 10:52 AM UTC
By Grace Lamb-Atkinson

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a major foreign policy address at the Council on Foreign Relations yesterday. Among other issues, she discussed elevating development in American foreign policy, the need to increase aid effectiveness, and the importance of focusing on women in fighting poverty.

Watch the video here. Or read the full text here.

Pan African News Agency: AfDB President Warns of Unpredictable Donor Funding
African Development Bank President Donald Kaberuka warned yesterday that for countries in Africa whose economies are heavily dependent on aid, the difficulty in predicting donor funding could harm education budgets. He said that although the G8 countries had reconfirmed their commitment to funding of Africa’s education sector, aid was still very unpredictable because of the financial crisis. He argued that efforts were needed to ensure donor funding for Africa’s education sector and urged the finance ministries across the continent to work closely with other sectors to provide services such as water and sanitation, which he said were critical for keeping children in school.

Reuters: WTO Cotton Deal Will do Little for Africa – Expert
World Trade Organization members have agreed to give cotton special treatment within agricultural negotiations under the revived Doha round. Ministers of African countries dependent on cotton will lobby the U.S. Congress on cotton subsidies from July 20 to 22. A deal slashing rich-country subsidies that depress world prices, keeping cotton farmers in African and other developing regions in poverty, is seen as a litmus test of the world community’s ability to produce a fair farm trade agreement. However a senior African economist said yesterday that the deal offers little hope to African countries because it captures only fraction of US cotton subsidies.

Financial Times: Blair Named in Race to be EU President
Britain’s former Prime Minister Tony Blair was announced yesterday as the country’s official candidate to become the European Union’s president. However Blair has not confirmed that he wants the job and the post has yet to be created. The new EU president would become a powerful figure on the world stage, representing the views of a union of 500m people.

New York Times: Kenya’s Bill for Bloodshed Nears Payment
Ever since last year’s eruption of post-election violence, which killed more than 1,000 people and threatened to drive this once promising country off a cliff, Kenyans have been waiting to hear who masterminded the bloodshed. A commission investigated the violence in October and came up with a list of several top suspects – believed to include some of the nation’s most powerful men – which it gave to Kofi Annan. Kenyan politicians had promised Mr. Annan that they would form a special tribunal to try the suspects here, but so far they have refused to do so. Last week Mr. Annan sent the names to the International Criminal Court, which has now indicated it will step in if Kenya does not act.

-Grace Lamb-Atkinson

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